Microsoft puts the pedal to the metal, pushes out new Windows 10 preview

The Fast Ring just got faster…

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Microsoft has pushed out a new preview build of Windows 10 (Redstone) to the Fast Ring, while noting that you'll now see an increased pace of builds being deployed, as previously promised.

Gabe Aul, VP of Engineering Systems, announced the new build which is version 14257. In a blog post, he said that this marked the beginning of a new development cycle bringing new features to Windows 10, but that Microsoft's teams were still in the early stages of work on said features, so there won't be many changes just yet.

Again, this is nothing new, as all the recent preview builds have been about tinkering with the underlying code of Windows rather than adding much in the way of new features. (And Redmond also took some time to revamp the internal build development process itself).

So what is new with build 14257? Well, quite a number of bug fixes, including some stuff that the previous build broke – such as the Connect button, which now appears in the Action Center once again.

Some sporadic app crashes caused by memory management issues have been put right, and F12 Developer Tools now load properly in the Edge browser.

Microsoft also fixed the following problems:

We fixed an issue where suggested apps were being shown on the Start menu even though "Occasionally show suggestions in Start" was turned off under Settings > Personalization > Start

We fixed an issue where if you try to change the Lock screen picture with "Get fun facts, tips, tricks and more on your lock screen" turned on it will revert back to the default

We fixed an issue where the positions of desktop icons get jumbled up after switching DPI settings from 100% to 150% or 175%

We also fixed an issue where pasting files into a new .zip file (compressed folder) in File Explorer by either right-clicking or Control-V would not work. You should be able to paste tiles into new .zip files just fine now

Don't click that!

Naturally enough, there are some new issues with this build – one thing Microsoft also promised is that faster delivery will mean more potential bugs, for obvious reasons.

There is one showstopper to be aware of, and that occurs if you select Reset This PC under Settings > Update & Security > Recovery – in which case, your system will become borked with no workaround possible, and you'll have to reinstall Windows 10. So, don't reset your PC…

Build 14257 also makes the front-facing camera unusable on computers with Intel RealSense, so bear that in mind as well. For the full list of flaws, see Microsoft's blog post.

As well as Windows 10 previews being pushed out faster, the full version of Redmond's new OS is also making its way onto consumer PCs at a swifter pace in recent times, particularly when it comes to the gaming community.